Tapping and raveling apparatus for steel-furnaces and the like



E. H. WURST. v TAPPING AND RAVELING APPARATUS FOR STEEL FURNACES AND THELIKE.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 23,1919- Patented Apr. 5, 1921.

3 SHEETS-SHEET I.

fa gflgm/ BY W F HA5 ,4 TTORNE r5 E. H. WURST.

TAPPING AND RAVELING APPARATUS FOR STEEL FURNACES AND THE LIKE.APPLICATION FILED JUNE 23.1919.

1,373,581 Patented Apr. 5, 1921.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2-- far/ @257 5 7-3 AM HA5 A TTORNE Y5 E. H. WUHST.TAPPING AND RAVELING APPARATUS FOR STEEL FURNACES AND THE LIKE-APPLICATION FILED JUNE 23. I919.

Patented Apr. 5, 1921.

3 SHEETSSHEET 3.

rfi wk m M, A wi i x 3 bm TIIIA! far/h Wurs/ H/J A TTOR/VE Y5 UNITEDSTATES PATENT OFFICE.

EARL H. WURST, 0F ELYRIA, OHIO.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 5, 1921 Application filed June 23, 1919. Serial No.306,017.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EARL H. WVURsr, a citizen of the United States,residing at Elyria, in the county of Ohio, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in Tapping and Raveling Apparatus for Steel-Furnacesand the like; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear,and exact description of the invention, such as will enable othersskilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same Thisinvention relates to apparatus for performing certain operations onfurnaces which have heretofore been performed by hand.

Steel and similar furnaces have tapping plugs near the base fordischarging the molten metal when the heat is finished. The hole isplugged with fire-clay and similarmaterial before the heat is commenced,and during the heating this is baked into a very hard plug. After theheat this must be removed, and it is has always been the practice, sofar as I am aware, to remove as much as possible of the plug from theoutside ofthe furnace, and then to use long rods which areinsertedthrough holes in the furnace doors to punch the plug out from theinside. This is a laborious and disagreeable operation, on account ofthe great heat of the furnace. It is also an expensive operation, as themolten metal usually destroysa number of rods by the slow hand process.

Steel furnaces are lined with dolomite and similar mixtures and themetal very frequently eats out'the lining on the bottom and forms adepression which retains the molten metal. In order to save thismetal,'and also to remove it for the purpose of later repairing thelining, it has always been the practice to use ravels, which areoperated by workmen. to push the metal out of the depression and throughthe tap ping hole. This is likewise a difficult and disagreeableoperation, as it has always been performed by hand as soon as thefurnace is tapped and before the metal has had time to solidify.Furthermore, the ravels are destroyed to a greater extent by the moltenmetal than are the plugging rods, as the operation is a slow one.

It is the object of my invention to use apparatus that will quicklyperform the operations above described and the manner in of Lorain andState which this is accomplished will now be described, reference beinghad to the drawings in Which- Figure 1 is a side elevation of myimproved apparatus.

Fig. is an end view of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 8 is a top view of a portion of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a view of'the attaching socket of the apparatus shown in Fig.1.

Fig. 5 is a view of the apparatus shown in Fig. 3, but with the parts indifferent operative position.

Fig. 6 is a view of a section of the furnace showing my improvedapparatus in operatlve position.

Referring to the drawings, my improvement consists of a platform 1having suitable truck wheels 2 adapted to transport the apparatus onrails 3 in front of the furnace 4 (Fig. 6.) The platform 1 has asuitablesocket 5 adapted to receive the head of the usual charging peel6, shown in position in dotted lines in Fig. 6. This peel is one wellknown in the art and need not be described in detail, but it maybestated that it is attached to a crane device that may be raised andlowered, .moved backward and forward and rotated for the purpose ofcharging the furnaces with bottom material, all of which is well knownin the art.

The socket member 5 is arranged to receive the flange 7 of the peel 6,as shown in Fi 4, the shank 8 of the peel extending through the frontslot 9 of the socket member. By means of the socket attachment on theplatform 1, the peel can be inserted and the apparatus removed from thetrack and deposited in any place for the purpose of using the track forthe usual charging carriages.

The platform has a standard 10 secured to it, as shown in the drawings,and this standard is slotted at 11 to receive a cross bar 12, which ispivoted'by a bolt 13, so

that it can be tilted in the standard 10 for a purpose to be laterdescribed. 7

The cross bar 12 has secured at the ends rods 13 and 14, which support amovable carriage designated in its entirety by the reference character15. This carriage is adapted to slide back and forth on the rods 13 and14, and has a supporting cross bar 16 provided with suitable holes toreceive the rods or bars 13 and 14;. The cross bar 16 supports the base17, which is pivoted to it by means of a king bolt 18. The member 17 hasa frame or supporting extension 19 extending forward over the standard10, for the purpose of receiving the rod which is adapted to remove theplug and operate the ravel, previously referred to. 1

The cross bar 16 has a suitable socket 20 for receiving the flanged endof the charging peel, as shown in Figs. 1' and '2 of the drawings.similar in construction to the socket shown in Fig. 4.

The carriage 15 has a slot bounded by side members 21, 22 adapted toreceive the plug rod 23 and the clamping wedges 2 l25, as shownparticularly in Figs. 2 and 3. The sidemember 21 has an overhanging lipportion 26 to extend over the rod 23, so that it will be held rigidly inplace when the clampingwedges are in position, as shownin Fig 3. Theclamping wedges 2 1 and may be held in place by any means, but 1 haveshown an eccentric lever 27 pivoted at 28 on the wedge 24, and having astandard 29 receiving a threaded rod 30, which is secured to a standard31 pivoted in the wedge 25.

V The rod may be threaded in either or both of the standards 29 and 31,and it may be adjusted by rotation therein. If both of the ends of therods are threaded, obviously one end would have right hand threads andthe other end, left hand threads. By rotating the handle 27 downwardly,as shown in Fig. 3, the wedges will be loosened and moved to theposition shown in Fig. 5. The rod 23 can then be readily removed, or itmay be inserted with the wedges in this position, or the handle rotatedin the reverse direction to clamp the rod in place. The

wedges and the block 21 may be roughened where they contact with the rod23, so as to hold it firmly in place; The supporting rods 13, 14 mayhave springs 32 at each end to act as bumpers when the carriage 15 isslid back and forth by the crane and peel.

The operation of my improvedapparatus will now be described. Theapparatus will be run forward in front of the center door of the furnaceon the track andthe rod 23 placed through the hole33 in the furnace door3 1 (see Fig. 6). The peel 6' of'the charging crane will be placed inposition in the socket member20, and the workman will insert the rod 23through the hole 33 and against the plug 35 in the opposite wall of thefurnace, and will place the other end of the rod in the carriage 15 andclamp the same therein by manipulation of the clampmg wedges, as.previously described. The crane operator now moves the peel 6 back- Fward and forward and knocks out the plug rear of the furnace to receivevit.

This socket member 20 is and the molten metal is then discharged intothe ladle positionedin the pit in the As the V peel 6 is reciprocatedback and forth to tap Y the furnace, it is given a rotary motion by theoperator by the usual means such as'described in m prior application,Serial #299,914 which will tend to enlarge the hole 35 and make it moreor less of circular shape.

The rotation of the carriage is permitted by the pivotal arrangementbetween the front bar 12 and the standard 10,.and the pivotal connectionbetween the carriage 15 and the front bar 12 also permits this movementto take place without putting undue strains on the long rod or handle23.

When the furnace is discharged of its molten metal, it may be found thata pool of metal still remains in the bottom of the furnace, due to thefurnace lining being eaten out, as shown at 36 in Fig. 6. The workmenwill then remove the plugging rod 23 from the carriage 15 and place theravel handle 37, shown in dotted lines in Fig. 6, in the carriage 15, bythe operation previously described; The crane operator will then causethe peel 6 to move backward and forward, which will scrape the metal outof the cavity 36 by means of the ravel plate 38, in the same way asthisoperation is performed by the workman. It may happen that the pool ofmetal remaining in the furnace is 'midway between the furnace doors,-andthe ravel may be located in this pool to. forceit out by extending therod 37 through one of the adjacent doors. The

pivotal connection between the carriage 15 and the. cross bar 16 permitsthis angular position of the rod 37. to be assumed;

In Fig. 6 the furnace is shown considerably smaller, in comparison tothe remaining apparatus, than it would be in practice. Also, the furnaceis shown abovethe level of the tracks 3. 'This, however, is forthepurpose of better illustrating the improvement, as a drawing to actualscale'would render the peelattachment too small to give a clearunderstanding of the invention. i i 1' have'described one embodimentof'my invention in more or less particularity, but this has been by wayof'example only, and various. modifications may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention.

base member having 'a' supporting standard.

a pair of rods having means of attachment to said standard, a carriageadapted to slide on said rods, a peel socket secured to said carriageand means for clamping a rod in said carriage.

3. In apparatus of the class described, a truck platform, a verticalstandard thereon, a cross bar pivoted in said standard, rods secured tosaid cross bar, a carriage slidably arranged on said rods, a peel socketsecured to said carriage, and means on the carriage to clamp a rod inoperative position.

a. In apparatus of the class described, a truck platform, a standardthereon, a cross bar pivoted in said standard, rods secured to saidcross bar, a cross head slidably arranged on said rods, a peel socket onsaid cross head, a platform pivoted on the cross head and clamping meanson the cross head for holding a rod in position.

5. In apparatus of the class described, a truck platform, a peel socketon the platform, a standard thereon, a cross bar pivoted in saidstandard, rods secured to said cross bar, a cross head slidably arrangedon said rods, a peel socket on said cross head,

a platform pivoted on the cross head and clamping means on the crosshead for holding a rod in position.

6. In apparatus of the class described, a reciprocating carriage, asupport therefor, a clamp on said carriage adapted to receive a tappingrod and means for attaching a furnace peel to reciprocate said carriage,said clamp having hand operated lever.

7 In apparatus of the class described, a base member having a supportingstandard, a pair of rods having means of attachment to said standard, acarriage adapted to slide on said rods, a peel socket secured to saidcarriage and means for clamping a rod in said carriage, said meansincluding a pair of wedges and a hand operated lever for drawing saidwedges against the clamping rod for clamping the rod in position.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 2 day of June, 1919.

EARL H. WURST.

